We Dare You to Beat The Escapist's Office Prank

We don't usually do office pranks here at The Escapist, but when we do, we take it very seriously.

We take our work seriously at The Escapist's headquarters in Durham, and that means taking our play seriously too - whether it's group-dancing to "Thriller" or Nerf warfare. So in retrospect, when I came into the office this morning to see Kross' desk covered in cardboard, I really shouldn't have been all that surprised.

The cardboard cubicle/prison was the brain child of The Escapist's web developer ThyNameIsMud and video producer CaptainCrunch (who sit on either side of Kross' desk). According to them, the plan was concocted Friday night, and the idea of a cardboard fort eventually evolved into a prison "for unknown reasons."

Over the weekend, the pair came in to the office for construction. The walls and watchtower went up on Saturday, along with plans for a cobblestone pattern and barbed wire strewn across the top. On Sunday, the Bane action figure took his post atop the watchtower, and The Rock offered to stand watch as guard outside. Red lights were added to give it an "ominous glow," and the installation received a German name: "Arbeitstein," or "work stone."

In case you were wondering (and don't speak German), the sign outside the door reads "Girls are forbidden." Some things never change.

The final touch was to hook Kross' speakers up to a list of prison music: When he entered the fort this morning, the office was filled with "Dueling Banjos" from Deliverance - the playlist also contained the theme from Oz and music from Schindler's List.

Kross was unavailable for comment. I mean, have you seen that thing? How the heck do you expect us to get in there to talk to him?